On the Web Since 1999

April 30, 2011

Giants at Nats: Game One

One of the fun and unique things about attending a baseball game is the anticipation of who the starting pitcher or pitchers will be. When the Giants were here in 2007, it appeared that Tim Lincecum would pitch on Saturday. We bought tickets for that game, but the Giants announced their star ace needed some arm rest. In his place, Jonathon Sanchez was called up from Fresno.

This year, Howard and I bought tickets ahead of time, based solely on the fact that we wanted to see the first game. I figured we wouldn’t get Lincecum but when skipper Bruce Bochy decided to insert Ryan Vogelsong on Thursday, it worked out that we did get to see The Franchise.

Unfortunately, Lincecum wasn’t his sharpest. Jason Marquis was and we lost 3 to 0.

Batting practice was fun, a good turnout of fans, more than last year. We spotted George Will walking into the Giants dugout. Team owner Bill Nuekom and President Larry Baer sat in the front row behind it. Talked with a father and son who came out from Sacramento.

The Giants loss coupled with the Capitals also losing dampened the spirit. But one has to put these things in perspective. In his bestselling book, Men at Work, Will writes about one Richard T. Cooper. Steps away from the gas chamber, he was asked for his final words.

Comments

Hi Jay,

I was actually sitting on the second level about where that camera was pointed for that picture. A couple of observations: That was the quickest game I've ever been to. Just to give you an idea, at about the 7th inning, I went to get a bite to eat, sat back down to eat during the top of the 8th, and the game was over 5 minutes later. I got sick from eating too fast! Another observation: A lot of Giants fans there! That made me happy. How many do you think there were? I'm thinking about 4,000, but I could be wrong. I'm just glad I wore my Giants gear, because I was not sure after what happened to Bryan Stowe. I kept telling myself that baseball is a more civilized sport, and I guess I was right...